March 1, 5 years on

No one has answered for March 1. In the footage, there are bone structures for an exploded head and an upper jaw. Neither of the 10 victims recognized officially has such injuries.

That is why I think the number of victims is understated. There are also instances of people disappearing and then their bodies being found a few days into March, 2008. But none of these cases, or missing people, have been investigated.

Popular dissent goes on.

I do not remember students striking since 1988. I remember in school in the early 90-s the ARF wanted us to strike but no one did.

It is probably significant.

Interesting approach.

Raffi's approach of allowing people around Armenia to express their concerns about the election results instead of concentrating in Yerevan is new. While it makes sense for the people who live in the West that when you have an idea, you should have a road show rather than focus on one demographic, it had not been done in Armenia during post election period. It has been done for pre-election times, most memorably in 1999 when Karen Demirjian took his message of "the need to pull Armenia out of the hole it was in".

Let us see how this will proceed and end.

Presidential elections

Another presidential "election" comes and goes. Nothing changes.

or because they are not really opposition parties...?

[...]or because they are not really opposition parties[...]

 This is the feeling I get when I look at the political scene in Armenia. Below is an excerpt from the the blog post by Katherine Leach, the UK Ambassador in Armenia.

We really welcome President Sargsyan’s commitment to holding Armenia’s best ever election.  But it is disappointing that three of the key non-government parties in parliament are neither putting up a candidate of their own nor backing any other.  Are these parties not standing because they lack finance, because they lack trust in a fair result, or because they are not really opposition parties as we would normally understand the concept?  If they lack finance, is it because potential wealthy backers are concerned about what will happen to their businesses if they back the wrong horse – or because they have not found a way of communicating their message in a way which would inspire donations from the general public?  (It’s interesting that, despite predictions to the contrary, President Obama raised more funds than Mitt Romney in 2012, largely thanks to his success in connecting with voters and activists and getting many small donations of under $200).  In monitoring the campaign and talking to members of all the parties over the next month, we’ll be doing our best to understand what more could be done to promote a truly vibrant spirit of political competition.     

But after over a decade of elections badly marred by fraud, perhaps the biggest challenge for the Armenian authorities in this election is trying to rebuild and win the trust of its people and partners. Will this happen? I very much hope so.  Looking from the outside, it seems to me that the following three areas are crucial ones for state authorities to focus on during the election period – and in the follow-up period afterwards

For the full post, please follow this link:

http://blogs.fco.gov.uk/ukinarmenia/2013/01/22/its-time-to-reflect-on-the-achievements-and-look-forward-to-coming-opportunities/